Development of Peanut Cultivars with Improved Water Use Efficiency and Resistance to the Peanut Root-Knot Nematode and TSWV

Previous progress from this project has resulted in the development of peanut genotypes with relatively high yield and relatively low aflatoxin contamination when grown under drought and heat stress conditions. Continued breeding efforts are needed to improve the yield and grade to develop drought tolerant peanut cultivars. During this year we continued these breeding efforts and conducted numerous field tests containing breeding lines that we are evaluating to access their tolerance to drought, yield, and grade. These lines were planted in replicated studies at our field at the Gibbs Farm that has ten rain out shelters. The shelters were then used to impose heat and drought stress for the 40 days immediately prior to harvest. Plots were visually rated for drought stress, and the yield and aflatoxin contamination were measured. Breeding lines that had relatively high yield and relatively low aflatoxin were identified. 
We have also continued our breeding efforts to develop peanut cultivars that have resistance to late leaf spot and/or the peanut root-knot nematode. These effort span the gamut from making crosses to yield trails to evaluate late generation breeding lines for potential release as cultivars.